LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



©I^pl'^;^ inpjjris]^ -^a.-^.. 
Shelf ,S-&1- 

TJNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



PROFIT FROM INVENTION, 



BEING SUGGESTIONS AS TO THE MAKING OF 

PRACTICAL IMPROVEMENTS IN THE USEFUL 

ARTS, PROTECTING THEM BY LETTERS 

PATENT AND DISPOSING 

OF THE MONOPOLY. 



BY 



1 



fl 



n^ 



WILLIAM EDGAR SIMONDS. 







HARTFORD : 

PUBLISHED BY THE ACME COMPANY, 

1883, 



Copyrighted 1S83 by William Edgar Simonds. 



a4 



CHAPTER I. 

MAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS, 

How to Invent. It may be thought that it is be- 
ginning unnecessarily near the foundation of things to 
discourse upon the manner of making inventions, in a 
little work, the main purpose of which is to outline 
reasonable methods to be followed in attempting to 
realize profit from undeveloped invention — that is, in- 
vention undeveloped in a commercial sense ; but the 
realization of profit from an invention depends primarily 
and legitimately upon there being real value in it, upon its 
utility and practical character ; and what is said under 
this head has largely for an object the suggestion of the 
ends to which invention should, in the first place, be 
directed in order to attain utility, practicability and, con- 
sequently, profit. 

It is beyond the power of these pages to literally teach 
how to invent ; it is beyond the power of any mere form 
of language to do this. No mere words can endow a 
brain with the subtle and wonderful power of evolving 
from its inner self positive intellectual creations. If this 
power could be imparted and conveyed by words inven- 
tion would soon cease to attract unusual attention or to 
have extraordinary money value for the science would be 



PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



taught in the schools, would be formulated in books, and 
when an invention is found needful the person needing it 
would simply consult such books or counsel with the 
professor of the science and, /r^^f/t?/ the required inven- 
tion would vault full grown upon the scene. 

Invention, like the arts, poesy, painting, and sculpture, 
is a gift, an endowment of nature, often rising to the 
height of genius. Like all natural gifts it can be culti- 
vated and strengthened by exercise till the acquired 
power as little resembles the original crude gift as the 
sturdy and branching oak, assaulted by a thousand 
storms, resembles the green and succulent twig newly 
sprung from the parent acorn. 

This gift is probably the possession, in a greater or less 
degree, of all human beings of sound mind ; and it does 
not seem to require inventive capacity of the highest 
order to produce important improvements. Many inven- 
tions which have made their originators rich and famous, 
have been the product of minds that lay no claim to kin- 
ship with genius. The quality of mind and character 
which led Goodyear to pursue the ignis fatuus of hard 
rubber till, in a happy moment, he stumbled on the cov- 
eted secret, can hardly be called genius. That inventors 
are often geniuses is too plain a matter to need statement ; 
the names of Whitney, Blanchard, and Ericsson are too 
familiar. Still it is true that most men, and women too, 
can become inventors of that which will give sub- 
stantial gains, if not fame, by the aid of rightly directed 
attention and perseverance. 

The habit of careful observation, of intelligent atten- 
tion to all that goes on around and about one, is the most 
valuable habit that can be acquired in any calling of life; 



MAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS. 



its worth can not be estimated too highly by him who 
would become a practical inventor. The man who goes 
about with his eyes open to that end constantly dis- 
covers, in his work and in his recreations, some place 
where an improvement can be brought into useful play. 
Nine hundred and ninety-nine ladies daily care for their 
feathered songsters and daily sweep up the seeds scat- 
tered under the cage, making no special mental note 
thereof ; the thousandth lady notes it and wonders if a 
seed cup can not be devised which will prevent the nui- 
sance ; she has taken the first, possibly the most impor- 
tant, step toward invention. 

Many men go a-fishing and are perpetually troubled 
by an unmanageable float, accepting the annoyance as 
fore-ordained from the beginning ; an observant man 
goes for finny prey and wonders if a better float can not 
be devised : he, too, has taken the first step toward in- 
vention. Some time before the telephone made its suc- 
cessful advent, a toy composed of a string with a cup at 
each end, and used for communicating spoken words 
through the stretched cord, came into wide notice ; one 
of our well known monthly magazines contained a comi- 
cal cartoon showing this toy. Thousands of people used 
the plaything, with gentle, momentary wonder, and had 
no special thought about it, but observant men noted 
with deep interest the transmission and reproduction of 
sound vibrations, asked themselves if the same phenom- 
ena could not be effected with a metallic cord and for 
longer distances, then bethought themselves of the electric 
wire, made the experiment indicated by this collocation 
of ideas, and the wonder-working telephone was the result. 

Any one who is the friend, or companion of veteran 



Profit from invention. 



inventors knows there are habits peculiar to the genus. 
Note book and pencil are never absent from their 
pockets ; where a valid want is observed the want is 
noted down and afterwards pondered upon till a device 
for filling it is conceived ; when conceived, the concep- 
tion, too, goes into the book in the form of concise de- 
scription or rude sketch, either or both, made at the time 
and place of conception : sometimes the result is an in 
vention of magnitude, oftener one of minor importance. 
For every device that a veteran inventor patents he gen- 
erally has a score or so of unpatented ones in his note 
books and papers. 

This habit of constant and careful attention to one's 
surroundings will sooner or later lead to the discovery of 
some want, the filling of which by a new and useful de- 
vice will prove profitable. 

Having by the aid of observation made the discovery 
of a material want needful to be filled, there is then 
requisite a steady perseverance in holding the matter in 
mind and in thinking of ways to accomplish the desired 
result. To the veteran inventor, at least so far as other 
than complex inventions are concerned, this is generally 
a matter of minor difficulty. Indeed so readily will a 
man, of long experience in devising new mechanisms 
or even in dealing with them as an expert or so- 
licitor, think of parts requisite to accomplish given 
motions and functions that it would almost seem that in- 
vention is really only a science that can be taught and 
learned ; but he who accepts that idea accepts a mistake ; 
the gift is from God, its improvement may be taught. 
Invention is made up of two elements : discovery of a 
want to be filled and conception of means for filling it ; 
the former is practically as important as the latter. 



MAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS. 



Steady perseverance in holding a discovered want in 
mind, all the while intently striving to devise a contri- 
vance for supplying it, will be almost sure, sooner or 
later, to eventuate in a conception of the desired con- 
trivance. The inventor gifted by nature with a genius 
for his art has, prominent among all his other powers, 
that of projecting before his mind's eye, upon a back- 
ground visible only to the imagination, a picture bold 
and sharp of the offspring of his brain. For all this no 
one need be discouraged if he spoils scores of fair sheets 
of paper with his pencil or dozens of shapely pieces of 
wood with his knife and gimlet before he attains a satis- 
factory conception of his invention. The power of 
making mind pictures will grow by exercise, but the tyro 
will be much more apt to mould his invention by succes- 
sive improvements to practical perfection if he embodies 
it, even crudely and imperfectly, in tangible materials. 

The practice of the veteran inventor of keeping by him 
a note book wherein to sketch and describe his concep- 
tions, as well as his discoveries of wants to be supplied, is 
a good practice for the beginner. He will soon be sur- 
prised at the progress he makes and, aside from the prac- 
tical phases of success, there is no purer enjoyment than 
that of giving birth to a genuine mechanical conception 
and seeing it take form and shape in a sketch however 
rude. It is an excellent custom to date all memoranda and 
sketches of inventions : almost all valuable inventions 
are litigated at some period and in proving the time of 
making an invention such original dates are the best of 
all evidence. 

It is an excellent, not to say necessary, thing for him 
who would become a mechanical inventor to familiarize 



8 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



himself with the construction and operation of machinery 
in general : a knowledge of specific means of effecting 
nearly all movements and motions — a knowledge which 
is not only elementary but is also much more than that, 
can be acquired by a study of such a work as "507 Me- 
chanical Movements " by Henry T. Brown, a small and 
inexpensive but very valuable book ; a costlier and more 
elaborate work is Knight's Mechanical Dictionary ; the 
regular reading of such a periodical as the Scientific 
American is an educating process of value in this con- 
nection. 

The suggestions under this head can not perhaps be 
better brought to close than by permitting a veteran in- 
ventor of elaborate and successful machinery to reveal 
his mental processes in making an invention, it being re- 
membered meanwhile that in his case such processes are 
the ripe fruit of a long life devoted to invention in a 
special line, accompanied by comprehensive and accurate 
knowledge of all the mechanisms and parts of mechan- 
isms used in that line. Erastus B. Bigelow, now de- 
ceased, in his lifetime an inventor of large and deserved 
fame in connection with looms, particularly carpet looms, 
said : 

f " My first step toward an invention has always been to 
get a clear idea of the object aimed at.] I learn its re- 
quirements as a whole and also as composed of sep- 
arate parts. ) If, for example, that object be the weav- 
ing of coach lace, I ascertain the character of the 
several motions required, and the relations these must 
sustain to each other in order to effect the combined 
result ; secondly, I devise means to produce those mo- 
tions ; and thirdly, I combine those means and reduce 



MAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS. 



them to a state of harmonious co-operation. To carry 
an invention through the first and second stages is 
comparatively easy ; the first is simply an investiga- 
tion of facts ; the second, so far as I can trace the op- 
erations of my own mind, comes through the exercise 
of the imagination. I am never at a loss for means in 
the sense above explained. On the contrary, my chief 
difficulty is to select from the variety always at com- 
mand those which are most appropriate. To make 
this choice of elementary means and to combine them 
in unity and harmony — to conduct, that is, an inven- 
tion through its last practical stages — constitutes the 
chief labor. 

" In making this choice of elementary parts one must 
reason from what is known to what is not so, keeping 
in mind, at the same time, the necessary combinations, 
examining each element not only in reference to its 
peculiar function but to its fitness also for becoming a 
part of the whole. Each device must be thus ex- 
amined and re-examined until harmony and unity are 
fully established. I find no difficulty in effecting 
that concentration of thought which is so necessary in 
pursuits like mine. Indeed it is not easy for me to 
withdraw my mind from any subject in which it has once 
become interested until its general bearings, at least 
are fully ascertained. I always mature in my mind the 
general plan of an invention before attempting to ex- 
ecute it, resorting occasionally to sketches on paper for 
the more intricate parts. In building a machine a 
draughtsman prepares the working drawings from 
sketches furnished by me which indicate in figures the 
proportion of the parts, I never making anything with 



lO PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



* my own' hands. I do not like even drawing to a 
' scale." 

Preliminary Examination. Having arrived at the 
point where an invention can be sketched or intelligently 
described, even though minor details may not be fully 
worked out, it is then desirable to call in a bit of pro- 
fessional help : it is advisable, at this stage, that the in- 
ventor should have an examination made of the models 
and drawings in the Patent Office in order to ascertain if 
the invention is probably new and patentable. For this 
purpose the inventor should go to a reliable solicitor of 
patents, about whom more hereinafter. The fee usually 
charged for this service, in matters not complex, is a 
small one ; and the service is well wortli the price, — there 
is no work done by solicitors so poorly paid as this. 

The examination is advisable to the end that if the in- 
vention is found to be fully anticipated, the inventor may 
at once drop it and thereby save future time, trouble and 
expense, and also to the end that if the invention be 
found partly anticipated the inventor may be taught 
what to avoid ; not infrequently, from such examina- 
tion, the inventor may get valuable hints and suggestions 
to materially aid him in perfecting and maturing his 
device. 

Reduction to Practice. Passing safely the stage 
of preliminary examination, the inventor's duty then be- 
comes that of giving practical embodiment to his concep- 
tion. It must be made to work and that efficiently. 
Upon this point of the practical working of an invention 
the inventor can hardly be too severe or critical with him- 
self. He must not give over his efforts until he is sure. 



TAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS. II 



beyond a doubt, that his invention will practically supply 
the want for which it is designed, wholly irrespective of 
any of those little allowances that sanguine inventors are 
apt to make for these children of their brains. There 
may be cases where an invention will prove pecuniarily 
successful when, though it may not work perfectly, it is 
yet the best thing so far found for the purpose, in hand ; 
such a dependence is obviously a poor one for it will 
probably be comparatively easy for some future inventor 
to perfect the incomplete invention and thus interfere 
with, if not destroy, the first inventor's prospects. 

The embodied invention must be made as simple as 
possible. There are many people, among them some in- 
ventors, who seem to think that a complicated arrange- 
ment of wheels and levers is, in itself, an admirable 
thing ; they are as pleased as children with the glitter 
and clink of the moving parts. A greater mistake was 
never made. To attain the utmost simplicity is almost a 
test of genius and is, on all accounts, a prime desidera- 
tum. Simplicity brings cheapness and that, other things 
being equal, governs the world. Simplicity makes a de- 
vice easy to be understood, lessens liability to breakage, 
and, in every way commends the article to those who will 
become its users or consumers. 

If difficulties arise in working out practical details, or 
some parts persist in working awkwardly or unsatisfactor- 
ily, it is well to consult some expert mechanic and procure 
his aid in solving the difficulty. It is not a rare occurrence 
that one's mind, by long dwelling on a subject, becomes 
rutted when a mind freshly applied to tlie same matter 
would instantly see a way out of the rut ; and a good me- 
chanic, conversant with various common ways of accom- 



12 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



plishing a given result, may be able to instantly offer the 
desired suggestion. 

An inventor runs no risk of lawfully losing his inven- 
tion by calling in skilled help to solve difficulties in de- 
tails ; the suggestions of the mechanic would need to 
amount to a substantially different invention in order to 
vitiate the inventor's claim to the completed and per- 
fected device. About all that Morse originally contrib- 
uted to the production of his electric telegraph was the 
main idea or principle thereof ; scientific men and skilled 
artisans practically embodied that idea and yet Morse 
was rightfully held to be the inventor thereof. 

Choice Among Inventions. There is something 
of a choice to be exercised, when choice is possible, as 
to the kind of invention to be made. Those who are 
not looking for fame but only for money returns may 
safely confine themselves to small inventions which 
remedy a defect in some contrivance already in use or 
which supply some domestic, business, or agricultural 
want. 

Good toys, well pushed, are sure to prove remunera- 
tive : the return ball, a wooden ball at the end of a rub- 
ber cord, is a favorite instance. Household articles have 
about the most extensive market possible ; large fortunes 
have obviously been made from the fruit jars now so 
common. Small articles require but little capital for 
their manufacture. On the other hand the public has to 
be educated up to the use of any new article designed 
for general consumption and this sometimes proves to be 
a task of magnitude. Perhaps the best kind of an in- 
vention, the one most readily and legitijnately turned 



MAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS. I3 



into money, is a new machine or process for cheapening 
the production of some common article of extensive con- 
sumption ; in developing such an invention there is no 
education of the public to be accomplished, the public 
goes on buying the same thing to which it has been ac- 
customed, at the familiar price, the manufacturer mean- 
while reaping his harvest of gains from the cheapened 
cost of production ; the only person who needs to be ed- 
ucated to the use of an invention of this sort is the 
manufacturer, and he is almost always intelligent, enter- 
prising, and glad to investigate any and all things which 
offer a reasonable hope of cheapening the cost of his 
goods. 

The Success of Inventions. Let a word be said 
at this point as to the average success of inventions. 
There is a widespread notion that hardly one patent in a 
thousand pays. The idea is a delusion founded upon 
superficial observation. The great public hears only of 
those inventions which dominate the public mind and 
which count their profits by millions of dollars, the 
electric telegraph, the sewing machine, hard rubber, and 
the telephone for instances. It hears and knows nothing 
of the multitude of patents taken by manufacturers 
solely for use in their own mills. Nor of another mul- 
titude of patents which give their owners modest gains, 
a few thousand or a few tens of thousands of dollars. 
A patentee seeking an extension of a patent for a slight 
improvement in wagon-wheel hubs admitted a profit of 
$61,000 ; another admitted a profit of $65,000 on an im- 
provement in tempering wire ; and another admitted a 
profit of $73,000 on a tuck-marker, all of which were in- 



14 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



ventions which, with thousands like them, the general 
public did not know the existence of. 

The proportion of paying patents is very much larger 
than is dreamed of by the public. The sober truth is that 
if there exists a royal road to wealth at all it lies through 
the gate of the Patent Office. Let no mere dreamer 
plant these words as seed in his mind for in his case the 
fruit will be wholly visionary ; but to him who is willing 
to work, and still work and wait, these are rightful 
promise of golden fruition. 

Prudent Precaution. Let another word be said as 
to the measure in which a man should devote himself to 
invention. 

No one should make invention the main business of 
his life, his reliance for a livelihood, till his success is sub- 
stantial and assured, unless he is possessed of so much 
of this world's goods that he and his dependents will not 
suffer if his hopes be never realized. Let the tyro go 
slow and feel his way. Let him, if he will, devote every 
evening in the year to invention and ponder upon it at 
every spare moment in the day, but let him not relax his 
industry in his regular vocation till he is in such circum- 
stances that it matters little whether he labors. 

In almost every community there may be found men 
who sadly need to heed this caution, men gifted with 
powers of invention, men of many admirable qualities of 
character, good mechanics whose services are always in 
demand and who are capable of earning, with but ordi- 
nary industry, more than enough to support themselves 
and their families in ease and comfort but who are often 
at their wits' end to pay their rent and procure the com- 



MAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS. 15 



mon necessaries of life, all because they will constantly 
neglect their regular work to give form and substance to 
the creations of their brains. 

Not only does the course they pursue make them ex- 
ceedingly uncomfortable in the mere matter of living but 
it effectually deprives them of the chance of ever ac- 
cumulating the small amount of funds necessary to 
perfect the smallest invention and introduce it to public 
notice. 

Taking Patent. Having made a new and useful in- 
vention and, also, having made sure that it will work 
efficiently and that it has been simplified and perfected 
as much as is practically possible, it then becomes neces- 
sary to acquire a monopoly of it by securing proper let- 
ters-patent therefor. 

This is a matter upon which most inventors need to 
have and to heed sound advice. A patent is a document 
which needs for its proper preparation an unusual com- 
mand of language, an acquaintance with the art to which 
the improvement relates, a good knowledge of law in 
general and an accurate acquaintance with patent law in 
particular. It must be drawn with direct reference to 
the multiform and ingenious attempts that are altogether 
likely to be made to evade it, and with reference to the 
persistent and subtle assaults that will be made upon it 
in litigations. 

Judge Story, who was fully qualified to express an 
opinion of the highest value, judicially spoke of patent 
practice as the metaphysics of the law ; the refinements 
known to that practice in his day were but elementary 
\o those of the present age ; there are no litigations 



l6 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



known to the courts that bring into exercise the learning, 
elaboration and exhaustive thought common to patent 
practice. How idle then it is to expect to have a patent 
properly drawn by a person without that learning and 
experience which fits him to prepare in advance against 
rapiers so keen, wielded with such consummate skill ! 

Again and again the Commissioners of Patents have 
warned inventors against cheap and incompetent solici- 
tors, particularly against those who procure patents on 
the so-called "no patent, no pay" plan, but there always 
have been and probably always will be men who expect 
to get something for nothing, who will unduly weigh a 
dollar and hope by some chance to get proper profes- 
sional service at a rate less than the properly skilled prac- 
titioner can afford to work for. 

A patent is a document as to the strength, validity, and 
proper execution of which most inventors know abso- 
lutely nothing ; they are compelled to trust entirely to 
the ability and integrity of the agent they employ ; the 
parchment, ribbon, and seal of a positively worthless 
patent have precisely the same outward seeming as those 
of another patent which embodies the results of the lar- 
gest experience, the widest range of appropriate learn- 
ing and the utmost painstaking. Inventors can not af- 
ford to put the blind trust, which the circumstances exact 
from them, in any other than the best agent procurable. 
It is safe to employ a lawyer actually engaged in patent 
practice ; it is safe to employ a mechanical expert of 
standing and reputation ; and it is safe to employ a few, 
and only a few others ; their standing and reputation 
should rest on something more substantial than their 
own assertions, spoken or printed, 



MAKING AND PROTECTING INVENTIONS. 



17 



The inventor, having selected his solicitor, should re- 
quire of him reasonable promptitude in the prosecution 
of the application, but he should give time to contest, in 
the inventor's favor, all points that ought to be contested; 
no strength of claim should be sacrificed merely to get a 
patent quickly. Any solicitor, who is worthy of confi- 
dence, ought at reasonable times to be ready to show an 
inventor just how his application stands and to show him 
all papers, pro and con, connected therewith. 





CHAPTER II. 

PREPARATION FOR SALE OF INVENTION. 

Models. In preparing to undertake the negotiation of 
an invention, if it be susceptible of illustration by model, 
it is so far advisable to have a small, perfect-working 
model thereof that it may be said to be necessary, this in 
order to conveniently and effectively explain it at differ- 
ent times and places. 

It is also in the highest degree desirable, in such case, 
to possess at least one full-sized machine that will work 
to perfection ; and if such a machine is not too large and 
costly the inventor should, by all means, have one made. 

The model is advisable, that the inventor may take it 
from place to place to explain the invention and interest 
proposed buyers in it. The full-sized machine is advis- 
able to convince those who begin to take an interest, and 
doubters generally, that the invention is perfectly practi- 
cal. If, beyond question, a full-sized machine would be 
too large and costly for the inventor's means, then he 
should have, in its place, complete and artistic drawings 
in elevation, plan, and detail. 

In the making of the small model and the full-sized 
machine, it is not enough to construct a rude device 



PREPARATION FOR SALE OF INVENTION. I9 



which, in a halting and awkward way, will illustrate the 
principle of the improvement. They should be most 
carefully and perfectly made. 

The mass of minds will much more readily understand 
and practically appreciate the principle of an invention 
if the mechanical execution is perfect. Whatever the 
after-made machines may be, the first one, made for 
show, should be a perfect-working mechanism, hand- 
somely finished. The inventor will usually find, at his 
best, enough to apologize for without being responsible 
for poor workmanship. 

It is much easier to interest a man or a crowd of men 
in a fine piece of mechanism, even if the device be old, 
than in a new but roughly-embodied invention. The 
tea, coffee, and spice merchants understand and take 
advantage of this fact when they place in their windows 
handsome specimens of small steam engines, which are 
supposed to be always grinding fragrant Mocha or Old 
Java, the merchants well knowing that many of the 
passers-by will stop to take a look at the painted and 
polished machinery, and will thereby be drawn to look at 
their merchandise. 

If the embodied invention be a small and inexpensive 
article, as a shirt stud, mouse trap, toy, line holder, or 
the like, the inventor will do well to have a number 
nicely made, which are not only convenient to hand to 
different parties, but, also, give an appearance of actual 
manufacture entered upon. 

If the invention be a new process or compound, the 
inventor should provide means and apparatus for handily 
and handsomely illustrating the process or compound 
and its effects, 



20 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



First Cost. The profit to be derived from an im- 
provement is the thing that will induce a buyer to invest 
in it. He will want to know with all possible certainty, 
approximately, at least, what the expected profit is. One 
requisite to the furnishing of the desired information is 
the ascertainment of the first cost of the embodied 
invention in the course of practical business. 

If the invented thing be something complicated and 
costly, the inventor should be able to show, either from 
his own knowledge or from the knowledge or calculations 
of some competent person, what its first cost is. Good 
authority would be that of a person accustomed to make 
or otherwise have intimately to do with other mechanisms 
or articles of the same general nature ; mechanical 
engineers are sometimes able to give accurate and reliable 
estimates of the cost of new machinery. The best of 
authority is the offer of a responsible machine builder or 
manufacturer to construct the machine or other thing for 
a specified price. 

If the invention be a small and inexpensive device, it 
is well to have such a number of them made as will 
accurately demonstrate the first cost. 

A slight difference in the first cost of a device often 
determines whether it will be commercially a success or 
failure. If the improvement be a new compound or 
process, the cost of putting it in practice should be 
similarly determined. 

The Individual Profit. As already suggested, the 
profit to be made upon the invention, as a whole, is the 
legitimate line wherewith to attract buyers. One im- 
portant factor in arriving at this gross profit is th^ 



PREPARATION FOR SALE OF INVENTION. 2 1 

determination of the profit upon a single article, or, as it 
is above termed, the individual profit. 

The profit made upon a single article is, aside from 
incidental expenses, the difference between the first cost 
and the retail price at which it is finally sold to the con- 
sumer. This whole individual profit is commonly divided 
into three and sometimes four parts : the manufacturer's 
profit, the wholesale dealer's profit, and the retail dealer's 
profit. There is sometimes, intermediate between the 
manufacturer and wholesale dealer, the jobber or com- 
mission merchant. The w^hole individual profit is to be 
apportioned among these parties. 

As the first cost is a fixed fact, the determination of 
the retail price determines the individual profit. The 
retail price, in an estimate, should be fixed at a figure 
which will give fair profits to all the parties named. If 
the improvement be upon an article in common use, a 
flat-iron, for instance, and the first cost of the article is 
substantially the same as that of the common article, it is 
well to adopt the scale of prices and profits which 
obtains in trade upon the common article, and depend 
upon large sales for proper gains. If, however, the scale 
of profits upon the common article is unreasonably low, 
it is well to advance somewhat upon it. If the first cost 
of the improved article is somewhat less than that of the 
common article, it is well to adopt the retail price of the 
common article and apportion the gain made thereby 
among the specified participants therein. Such a course 
is a substantial help, especially at first ; it makes a strong 
appeal to the wholesale dealer and the retailer, and these 
are the parties whom it is most difficult, and, at the same 



22 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



time, the most desirable to enlist in favor of the in- 
vention. 

If the first cost of the improved article is greater than 
that of the common article, and the profits upon the 
common article will not bear reduction, it is requisite to 
advance the retail price proportionately. 

There is no general correspondence of profits, to the 
three or four participants therein, on different articles ; 
the profits on different manufactures differ widely and 
with little or no reference to a common standard. The 
only general rule that can be given, in this respect, is to 
ascertain the scale of prices and profits that obtains, from 
the manufacturer to the consumer, in the trade upon 
articles nearest akin to the device under consideration, 
and then assimilate, as far as possible, the profits upon 
the new article to this scale, varying, however, as any 
good and substantial reason may dictate. An enquiry 
put to a friendly dealer in articles of the same class as 
the new improvement will elicit what the common trade 
profits are. 

If the invention be a new process, the inventor should 
follow the same general course, as above indicated, and 
be prepared to show what the gain is in using the new 
method as compared with the old, and what increased 
profit is secured thereby. 

The same general direction applies to the case where 
the invention is a new machine for making old products, 
as, for instance, a machine for making brick. 

The reader will notice, possibly with surprise, that 
these directions for getting at the individual profit read 
as if they were intended for a person entering upon the 



I>REPARATI0N FOR SALE OF INVENTION. 23 



actual manufacture and sale of the patented article, while 
he, the reader, intends to do nothing of the sort, but 
simply to sell his patent to some one else who shall make 
and sell the patented thing. 

It must be remembered in this connection that the 
buyer of the monopoly will want to know the profit 
incident to actual manufacture and sale ; and if the 
inventor puts his estimate upon any other than an honest 
and reasonable basis, some hard-headed man will expose 
the error and destroy the confidence of an intending buyer 
in all the inventor's representations. 

The Market. Having ascertained the first cost and 
determined the selling price, and thereby determined the 
individual profit, it then remains to ascertain, as near as 
may be, how extensive a market is open to the invention, 
and thereby reasonably approximate to the entire gross 
profit derivable from an invention. 

If it is an improvement useful to both sexes, children 
and adults alike — an improvement in shoes or stockings, 
for instance — it will have for a possible market the whole 
population of the entire country, a matter to be deter- 
mined by consulting the census. If useful to adult males 
only, to adult females only, to male children only, or to 
female children only, it will have for a possible market 
about one-fourth of the entire population, which is made 
up, in round numbers, of males and females, as well as 
of children and adults, in about equal parts. If the 
invention is one useful in every family, its entire possible 
niarket will be about one-eighth of the whole number of 
souls, there being on an average one family to every 
eight persons. 



24 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



The census reports contain such full statistics of the 
different trades, professions, and callings of the people 
of the United States, and such full classifications gener- 
ally, that there can often be gathered therefrom how 
many there are of any class or classes of persons to 
whom an invention is of peculiar utility, and the whole 
of such class or classes constitutes the entire market pos- 
sible to an invention. 

Instead of being directly and immediately useful to 
any large class of persons, an invention may be an im- 
provement in the manufacture of some standard article 
of general consumption, flour barrels for instance, the 
production of which is in comparatively few hands, and 
then it is desirable to ascertain the amount of the annual 
production of such articles ; or it may be an improved 
process, say of smelting iron, and then it is desirable to 
ascertain how many tons of iron are annually smelted in 
the whole country. 

The census reports are of great value oftentimes in pro- 
curing information of this sort. When they do not serve 
the purpose, the librarian of almost any large public li- 
brary can direct to the proper sources of information. 
The editors of specialist or trade papers are often able 
and willing to either give the desired information or to 
put an enquirer on the right track. 

The wants which inventions are designed to fill are so 
many and various that it is impracticable here to do 
more than to suggest the kind of information needed and 
the common sources of acquiring it. 

The monopoly given by a patent lasts seventeen years, 
and one factor to be taken into account, in computing the 



PREPARATION FOR SALE OF INVENTION. 2 q 



entire possible market for an article, is its durability. 
If the article when once sold to the consumer will last 
him ten years, it follows that the market for that article, 
within the term of years covered by the monopoly, is not 
so large as it would be, if, in the natural course of things, 
it lasted but a short time and then required renewal. 

Having settled upon the extent of market possible to 
an invention, the entire possible profit to be derived 
therefrom can be readily computed by multiplying the 
individual profit by the whole number required to fill the 
entire possible market. 

A word of caution may not be inappropriate at this 
point. This entire possible market is always something 
enormous, but it is only theoretically possible, not really 
so, as all business experience proves ; and no inventor 
should either himself believe, or seriously pretend to 
others, that it is actually possible to reach and supply so 
extensive a market. 

The calculation indicated is only valuable as showing 
the mine that the owner of the monopoly has to work in; 
the richer and more valuable the mine the greater the 
worker's probable profits. The actual market possible to 
be reached and supplied is probably about one fourth the 
theoretical entire market. 

Capital Required. Another thing desirable to be 
preliminarily arrived at is a knowledge of the approxi- 
mate amount of capital necessary to suitably work the 
invention. Unless the amount required is clearly and 
obviously small, it is a subject which the inventor should 
not be anxious to broach ; if it be small it is a matter 
4 



PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



which the inventor may legitimately urge in favor of the 
improvement. 

An entire lack of knowledge on this subject may prove 
a stumbling block to an intending buyer, and it is well 
for the inventor to preliminarily give the matter some 
consideration. Little can be offered in the way of sug- 
gestion, upon this topic, for the amount of capital requisite 
varies with a multitude of circumstances which have little 
or no lawful connection with each other : it is a matter 
that is largely determined by the practical business tact 
and sagacity of the operating party ; one man would 
need or seem to need double the amount required by 
another man, and, even at that, the latter might be the 
more successful of the two. 

Let us suppose that the invention is some small article 
that is wholly made by casting ; then the cost of a suit- 
able number of patterns and the cost of a stock sufficient- 
ly large to fill all ordinary orders, including cuts, labels 
and packages, are proper subjects of enquiry, and they 
are about all that are legitimate, for rent, printing, adver- 
tising, and the like, are matters too indefinite to be en- 
tered upon. 

Price to be Asked. This is precisely the thing as 
to which the average inventor seeking to sell his monop- 
oly most ardently desires precise and definite informa- 
tion. It is also precisely the thing as to which it is most 
difficult to offer suggestions in the nature of general 
rules. 

It is pretty safe to say that inventors are more apt to 
overestimate than underrate the money value of their in- 
ventions. 



PREPARATION FOR SALE OF INVENTION. 27 



As a matter of course the more profit there is to be 
reasonably expected from the monopoly the more valu- 
able it is. If it appeals to a small and widely dispersed 
class, its value will be correspondingly limited. If it is 
a new and radical improvement in the manufacture of 
some staple article of large, constant and imperative de- 
mand, like the Bessemer steel process for instance, 
a quarter of a million dollars would be a reasonable price 
on an outright purchase ; the inventions of hard rubber, 
the sewing machine, the electric telegraph, the telephone, 
and the Woodbury planer were each easily worth that 
sum and more. 

If the invention be a meritorious improvement on 
some low priced article in general use a few thousands of 
dollars would usually be a fair price. Again, if the in- 
vention be a valuable improvement on some important 
agricultural implement, a reaper or mower for instance, 
from twenty-five to fifty thousand dollars would not be 
an exorbitant price. For a toy few inventors need expect 
more than two or three thousand dollars. 

In no case can the inventor expect to get more than a 
fraction of the value of the invention, for the buyer has 
to take the risk of public appreciation of the invention, 
to take upon himself the trouble and expense incident to 
developing it, and his gains will come piecemeal. The 
buyer should have the lion's share of the probable profit, 
as an inducement to embark in the enterprise. 

The advice of friends who are in business, particularly 
if their business is such as to make them practically con- 
versant with the market for the device under considera- 
tion, will often be of value in fixing a price to be asked 
for the invention upon an outright sale, 



28 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



It would seem that an approximate price ought to be 
arrived at by first computing the theoretical entire profit 
possible to the invention, calling one-fourth of this the 
actual possible profit, and one fifth this last sum the 
selling price. 

Price of Territorial Rights. Having fixed upon a 
gross sum to be asked for the whole monopoly, it is easy 
to determine proper prices for grants of territorial rights; 
and it is well to be prepared to name such prices. 

If ten thousand dollars is fixed upon as the value of 
the whole patent, a State right thereunder will theoreti- 
cally be worth just such a part of ten thousand dollars as 
the population of the State bears ratio to the population 
of the whole country. Take, for instance, the State of 
Connecticut, and use the census of 1870 ; its population 
is about 540,000, while the population of the whole 
United States is about 38,000,000 ; theoretically, the 
value of the right for this State may be expressed thus : 
3tw¥¥§T7 of $10,000 = $142, or, not to put too fine a 
point upon it, $150 ; but the patent owner cannot afford 
to sell the right for one State at the same rate he would 
sell the right for all the States as a single transaction. It 
is not unreasonable to treble this theoretical value of 
$150, which would make the right for the State of Con- 
necticut worth $450, or, in round numbers, $500. 

Having ascertained in this manner the price to be put 
upon the right for a State, the price of a county right 
can be deduced therefrom in a similar manner, and the 
value of a town or city right can be deduced in like 
manner from the price of a county right. 



PREPARATION FOR SALE OF INVENTION. 29 



Royalties. A royalty is a duty paid by one who uses 
the patent of another at a certain rate for each article 
or quantity manufactured or sold ; and it is desirable to 
be able to name a rate therefor. 

This mode of realizing profit from an invention is as 
common as any, perhaps the most common. If the 
invention has real merit, and the party who undertakes 
to pay the royalty acts in good faith and exerts reason- 
able energy, it is ^generally the most profitable for the 
inventor in the long run. If the improvement be one of 
doubtful merit, clearly this mode of disposing of it is not 
advisable ; in such case an outright sale or nothing are 
the alternatives. 

Outright sale, when a suitable gross sum is received, is 
probably preferable to most inventors, and it is to be said 
in favor of such a course that the inventor is thereby 
freed from any danger of injury arising from the bad 
faith of the licensee, as well as from dangers arising from 
litigation. After all is said, however, a royalty contract 
is, under suitable conditions, the most profitable in the 
end. 

The royalty to be asked, when an invention is rented 
out in this way, varies somewhat with the article or thing 
which is the subject of the contract. On high-priced, 
expensive articles, particularly if the market therefor is 
limited, a relatively high royalty is proper. On low- 
priced articles of large consumption a low rate of royalty 
is most profitable for all concerned. On articles of 
moderate price and fair demand, mowing machines, for 
instance, the royalty should stand at a medium point in 
the scale. 



30 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



Royalties commonly vary, upon different manufactures, 
from three to ten per cent, of the manufacturer's selling 
price. Such articles as boots and shoes, and improve- 
ments in making them, stand at the bottom of the scale 
in amount of percentage paid as royalty, and such things 
as jewelry and philosophical instruments stand at the 
top; agricultural implements stand about midway. 

In any case, it is not best to leave the manufacturer 
free to make as few as he chooses of the licensed article, 
for he may choose to make none, and then the inventor 
will realize nothing, while the manufacturer will still 
retain his license. The best precaution in this regard is 
to have a- clause in the agreement compelling the licensee 
to pay royalty upon a specified minimum of manufacture 
annually. The manufacturer should also agree to use 
his best endeavors to build up and maintain as large a 
trade as possible, and not to make or sell any competing 
article. 

When the question of the minimum amount of royalty 
to be annually paid cannot be readily and satisfactorily 
agreed upon, a year's experimental trial will generally 
enable both inventor and manufacturer to come to an 
understanding. 

All agreements of this nature should contain a con- 
dition that at stated times, usually quarterly or half- 
yearly, the licensee shall render to the inventor a true 
and accurate account of all the patented articles made 
and sold by him within the term covered by the account, 
and pay the royalty due thereon within a specified num- 
ber of days thereafter. It is well to have the right to 
require the licensee's oath to the truth of such accounts, 
and also the right to examine the licensee's books, 



PREPARATION FOR SALE OP INVENTION. 3! 



If one manufacturer will undertake to supply the whole 
market, he is usually given the exclusive right for the 
whole country. No manufacturer would be likely to 
take a license and bind himself to pay a minimum royalty 
unless he either had the sole right or the whole right for 
a certain territory. It is, of course, more profitable to 
the inventor, other things being equal, to have a number 
of licensees ; but, with some exceptions, the difficulties 
of attaining this end are too great to render the attempt 
advisable. There are, however, cases where it is proper, 
and when objections will not be strongly urged by manu- 
facturers. Take the case of an improvement in car 
wheels ; the consumption of these in the whole country 
is so large that no one concern could reasonably under- 
take to supply the whole demand ; and freight charges, 
where there is but one manufacturer, would, in some 
instances, necessarily be so high as to be prohibitory. 
In such a case a licensee having the exclusive right for 
the Eastern States, another for the Middle States, and so 
on, would be the right and proper thing. 

Shop Right. A shop right (so-called) is the right to 
use the patent or manufacture under it at some shop or 
manufactory. It may be restricted as to place or amount 
of production, or left unrestricted. 

It cannot, as a rule, be considered advisable to make 
sales of rights of this sort unless the right be restricted in 
both these particulars, and a yearly rent be reserved, 
which would make the character of the license approxi- 
mate to that of a royalty license. 

A shop right, when a percentage royalty is not 



32 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



reserved and the amount of production is unlimited, is 
almost sure to prove a nuisance; for although a factory 
may have been doing only a small business previous to 
the acquisition of the shop right, it might thereafter 
expand its operations so as to practically interfere with 
sales of goods under the patent throughout the whole 
country. 

The royalty element should, if possible, be introduced 
into a license of this sort ; that is, an annual rental 
should be reserved for a certain specified and maximum 
production. If this is not done, the licensee should be 
restricted as to the territory wherein he may sell the 
patented goods or the products of the patented machine 
or process. An instance can hardly arise where it is 
advisable to grant a perfectly free and unrestricted shop 
right, unless the price paid for it is tolerably near the 
value put upon the whole patent. 

When a rental is reserved, its amount can be arrived 
at by following the suggestions laid down under the head 
of " Royalties." Where the license is restricted only as 
to the territory wherein the products may be sold, its 
price can be reasonably fixed at three fourths the value 
of the entire and exclusive right for that territory, sug- 
gestions as to determining which are to be found under 
the head of " Price of Territorial Rights." 

The inventor's remaining right to sell other licenses 
within the territory may be said to be worth the remain- 
ing fourth of the value of ihe exclusive right for the 
territory. 



CHAPTER III. 



METHODS OF SALE. 



Patent Brokers. From time to time there appear 
in various periodicals, more particularly those which 
make a specialty of patent matters, the advertisements of 
parties who hold themselves out as following the business 
of selling patents ; and most inventors who take patents 
receive the circulars of one or more such advertisers. 
They, almost without exception, profess in their adver- 
tisements to do the business on commission. At one 
time a New York auctioneer advertised regular sales of 
patents at auction. 

The inventor who has been casting about here and 
there in the endeavor to sell his improvement is not 
unlikely to hail these announcements with uncommon 
delight, and hopes to find through them a haven of rest 
for his troubled barque. Let him make haste slowly in 
dropping anchor in such waters. 

The writer has seen the cards of a number of these 
advertisers, and also the answers received to letters of 
enquiry written to them. Without exception, these 
answers have disclosed the fact that an advance fee, 
commonly dubbed a ''booking fee," varying from $3.00 
in one instance to $250.00 in another, is charged by these 
5 



34 PROFIT FROM INVENTIOK. 



commission agents. There was a striking similarity in 
these circulars ; in one case two were found, parts of 
which were identically the same, word for word, although 
they professed to issue from " offices " (?) a thousand 
miles apart. 

These patent brokers advertise to sell on commission. 
The writer has yet to become acquainted with the 
instance where a preliminary fee is not charged by such 
advertisers. This is not the course pursued by other 
commission houses ; they always pay their own expenses, 
and generally advance money upon goods consigned to 
them before they are sold. For a patent broker to first 
advertise to sell on commission, and then charge an 
advance fee, is to act deceptively and untruthfully. 
When an inventor is treated to such an experience, he 
should be warned thereby, and refuse the proffered 
assistance for that particular bit of deception. 

It is as certain as can be that some of these advertisers 
are arrant swindlers. In the past they have hailed from 
a small town in Michigan, then from Philadelphia, then 
from Nashville, and so on through a dreary catalogue. 
They sent out circulars to inventors describing their 
offices, their large corps of salesmen, and their astonish- 
ing facilities, all of which existed only in imagination, 
always remembering to charge a paltry advance fee of 
three or five dollars, and giving some specious reason for 
the charge. Advertisers of this sort are, as past experi- 
ence proves, swindlers pure and simple. The trifling fee 
they charge can do nothing material toward presenting 
an invention to public notice, and it can have no other 
intended destination than the pocket of the swindler. 
The Michigan concern kept on at this business till they 



METHODS OF SALE. 35 



had accumulated hundreds, if not thousands of models, 
which they tumbled into closets and pocketed the fees 
thereon, while confiding inventors waited till heart-sick 
for tidings of sales which never came. The law at length 
hunted out and broke up this nest of swindlers. 

While it is not doubted that men have sometimes 
honestly undertaken to make a business of selling patents 
generally, there is just as little doubt that these efforts 
have always been short-lived ; these projectors have 
either become solely interested in some one valuable 
invention and given up the general business, or they 
have soon realized that, from the nature of things, the 
occupation is not legitimate and practical. A single 
invention of real merit is enough to occupy the time and 
attention of a man or partnership ; to fairly handle a 
number at once is not practically possible. The experi- 
ence of the writer and of others known to him has been 
such in this regard as to cause this mention of advertising 
patent brokers only to warn inventors against them. 

When one of these advertisers will undertake to sell an 
invention wholly at his own expense, without any advance 
fee, when the model entrusted to him is of no consider- 
able value, and the assignments of patent made in pur- 
suance of sales are to be signed by the patent owner, no 
particular risk is run in entrusting sales to such an one ; 
but under no other circumstances can it be considered 
advisable, in the light of past experience, to employ one 
of these advertising brokers. 

As for the project of selling patents at auction, it is too 
absurd to merit serious consideration. 

Probable Buyers. Before considering methods of 
presenting an invention to the notice of probable buyers, 



^6 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



it is a reasonable thing to give a little thought to the 
question of who the probable buyers are, for upon the 
answer to that question depends, to some extent, the 
methods to be adopted. 

The most legitimate market for a new improvement is, 
plainly and obviously, among that class of men who are 
interested business-wise in matters and things of a like 
nature, notably manufacturers who make and sell kindred 
articles or who use ^kindred machines or processes, for 
their experience best fits them to understand and appre- 
ciate its value, and their business is such as to enable 
them to most readily develop it and make the develop- 
ment profitable. 

Another class of persons who may be termed probable 
buyers are men out of business and seeking employment. 

Still another class of probable buyers is the speculative 
class, including those who are speculators by deliberation 
and intention, and also those — a much larger number — 
who are unconsciously speculative and are ready to grasp 
at a new thing which holds out reasonable hope of more 
than ordinary gains. 

So far as reaching them by any system is concerned, the 
unemployed and the speculative classes are, to all intents 
and purposes, one class. 

Personal Local Effort. The step that will naturally 
first occur to the inventor in undertaking to dispose of 
his monopoly is an attempt to find a customer in or near 
his own locality, and it is a right and proper thing to do. 

He can, from local sources, make a list of all the 
manufacturers within a reasonable distance of his home 
whom he will do well to approach personally, one at a 
time. 



METHODS OF SALE. 37 



Failing to find a customer among one of these, he may- 
well attempt, by local advertising or otherwise, to interest 
some one of the other classes of probable buyers. 

The suggestions hereinafter contained, adopted in 
practice to the purpose in hand, throw light on the details 
of procedure. 

Stock Companies. A great many patents, upon 
inventions of more than trifling value, are realized from 
by making them the property of stock companies which 
are either specially chartered by the State or national 
legislature, or are organized under the joint stock laws 
which exist in most, if not all, the States. This is a per- 
fectly legitimate and often an easy way of realizing profit 
from an invention. 

Sometimes the inventor takes his pay wholly in cash, 
but oftener either partly in cash and partly in stock or 
wholly in stock. The mode of operating is as follows : 
The inventor, let it be supposed, wishes to realize 
$10,000 in cash and $10,000 in stock, and it is necessary 
to have $15,000 actual cash capital to carry on the busi- 
ness. In such a case the nominal capital of the company 
can reasonably be fixed at $100,000. 

First of all let there be reserved $15,000 of this nomi- 
nal capital to be used in securing the aid and countenance 
of one or more men of means and influence, to be given 
away by the inventor for that purpose ; this part of the 
operation is usually confidential between the inventor 
.and those whose aid he seeks, the stock being, in the or- 
ganization of the company, set to the credit of the in- 
ventor and afterwards transferred to those to whom it 
has been promised ; if no deception is practised in the 



3^ PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



premises, the proceeding is a proper one ; the burden of 
securing the subscription of the whole capital stock 
should fall mainly on those who are to get this reward 
and the transferred stock is pay for the service ; if the 
inventor be asked whether he is to make such transfer he 
can not truthfully do less than say that he intends to suit- 
ably pay those who effectively help him ; he is not called 
upon to state the precise details of the arrangement. 
The inventor must, therefore, reserve for himself in all 
$25,000 of the capital stock. 

This leaves $75,000 in stock to be sold whereby to 
realize $25,000 in cash — $10,000 for the inventor and 
$15,000 actual working capital. To raise $25,000 cash 
upon $75,000 of stock, each share needs to be sold for 
only one third of its nominal value, which, of itself, is 
an inducement for parties to invest in the stock. 

To make this operation successful the inventor must 
be able to show, by trustworthy facts and figures, a toler- 
ably sure prospect for paying from six to ten per cent, 
dividends upon the nominal capital ; if he is able to do 
this and acts with a fair amount of shrewdness in secur- 
ing the help of men of the right sort by the aid of the 
$15,000 in stock, set aside for that purpose, his task is 
not difficult. 

The inducement he can hold out to investors is mainly 
hope of gains from dividends ; sometimes an equally 
potent factor is the prospect of official position in the 
company. When such companies are organized it is 
common for the services of the inventor to be retained 
in some capacity, so that he is well paid by present cash, 
by stock and by future employment. 

If the inventor is content to take his pay entirely in 



iviETiiobs OF sale* J9 



stock then his task is just so much the easier, and if 
he is able to organize his company without giving away 
any stock, this again lightens the burden he must put 
upon the paying members. If he is willing to put his 
invention against, say, $10,000 actual cash capital, then 
he may be able to find one, two or three men who will 
put in the cash ; in short, there are many ways in which 
the programme may be varied to meet the particular cir- 
cumstances of different cases. 

The details of the organization of such corporations 
should be performed under the direction of a competent 
lawyer, who will see that the local laws governing such 
matters are complied with. The subscription paper, 
commonly called the '' articles of association," is usually 
the only legal paper needed until the capital stock has 
been subscribed. 

A word of caution is perhaps necessary in this matter. 
Let the inventor have nothing to do with that plan of 
organization, unhappily common in States where the law 
permits it, of making the patent pay for the whole capital 
stock. The performance is either idle or knavish ; the 
certificates of stock in such companies no more represent 
money than do the printed advertisements having the 
similitude of "greenbacks." Let the inventor beware of 
enlisting any mere adventurer or schemer as an assistant 
in getting up his company by means of the stock set 
aside to secure assistance ; let him enlist a man or men 
of means and influence, or no one. And, in organizing 
the corporation, be sure that the legal counsel is com- 
petent, and that no tail of personal responsibility attaches 
thereby. 



40 PROFIT FROM tNVENtlON. 



Negotiation by Correspondence. The first thing 
to be done in attempting to negotiate by correspondence 
is to procure a list, more or less complete, of the manu- 
facturers who have to do with matters akin to the 
invention to be sold. 

There are persons in all the large cities who make a 
business of furnishing, for a reasonable consideration, as 
small or as large lists of this kind as are desired. Mer- 
cantile agencies, directory publishers, and editors of trade 
journals are generally able to direct an enquirer to such a 
party. Frequently a directory of the whole of a particu- 
lar trade throughout the whole country can be bought ; 
Poor's Railroad Manual is such a directory as to all the 
railway companies ; any large dealer in the article in 
question can inform an enquirer whether such a directory 
of his trade is published and where to procure it. Again, 
there are published, for almost all the sections of the 
country, business directories which give all the trades 
within a certain section ; the New England Business Di- 
rectory, published in Boston, is such an one. It is not 
always necessary to get an entire list at first, but it is de- 
sirable to get one of considerable magnitude ; if it does 
not suffice, the list can be enlarged afterwards. 

Having procured such a list the next step is to proper- 
ly present the invention to the manufacturers therein in- 
dividually. For this purpose a carefully prepared printed 
description and an as carefully prepared form for a writ- 
ten letter are requisite. If the invention is susceptible 
of illustration by a wood cut or engraving, the printed 
description should bear one. The description should be 
clear, concise and accurate ; if the inventor is not suffi- 
ciently skilled in the use of words to perform this task 



MfiTHOBS OP SALE. 41 



well and thoroughly, he should have it done by some one 
who is. The engraving should not be a cheap and taw- 
dry affair, but should be executed in first rate shape. 
The paper and printing should be in keeping and both 
of the best. All floridity or ornamentation should be 
avoided, but a few dollars more or less should not be 
spared. When finished, the printed paper should bear 
throughout the air of a fine piece of work devoid of 
all mere ornament. Let this paper simply describe 
the invention and its operation and uses. Its advantages, 
with some other matters, are better reserved for the letter 
which is to accompany it. 

The same care and thoroughness that are prescribed 
for the preparation of the descriptive paper should be 
observed in preparing the letter. The letter should call 
the attention of the receiver to the improvement de- 
scribed in the accompanying paper, state the need, want, 
or difficulty which it is designed to supply or remedy 
enumerate the advantages it has over its strongest com- 
petitor, give the first cost and the individual profit, state 
to what class or classes it appeals for a market, show 
from reliable data how extensive that market is in and 
throughout the whole country, suggest or intimate rather 
than directly state the amount of gross profit to be 
derived if but a fraction of the entire possible market be 
reached, and invite consideration and an offer either for 
the whole monopoly or for any portion of it either by 
outright purchase or by royalty paid on the manufacture 
The letter should be modest in tone but positive in state, 
ment, and give the authority for its statements of fact 
when they reasonably require it. When once properly 
prepared one form of letter will answer for all cases, and 
6 



42 t'ROFlT FROM INVENTION. 



that fact warrants great care in its preparation. Its chir- 
ography should be clean and perfectly legible, a fine or- 
namental hand is not a detriment. 

It may be thought that all this carefid direction about 
such simple matters is superfluous and over nice, but it is 
not ; a man who is nicely but not showily dressed com- 
mends himself to one's good graces at first sight and the 
same is true of printed and written matter. The differ- 
ence between the well and the ill dressed man is only a 
matter of detail, so it is between an uncouth and a fine 
circular or letter ; the difference in the whole effect is 
one of substance. 

It is not well to name a price, but, if possible, draw an 
offer of one from him to whom the letter and circular 
are sent. 

Let a word of caution be dropped here as to the use 
of the word "Patent." Avoid it: speak of the inven- 
tion, the improvement or the monopoly, but speak of the 
patent as rarely as possible, for there is a prejudice 
against the word. Many men have been tricked and 
cheated by sharpers dealing in patents, and many foolish 
things have been paraded before the public eye under 
that brand. The prejudice vanishes when people 
discover that the patent covers a genuine improvement, 
but it is not well to wake any prejudice needlessly. 
This caution applies not only in getting up this circular 
and letter but in all attempts to dispose of a patented 
invention. 

The description and letter having been properly pre- 
pared are to be sent to the manufacturers. In the judg- 
ment of the writer it is not best to approach all the 
manufacturers simultaneously, though that is a matter as 



METHODS OF SALE. 43 



to which opinions may well differ, but to approach a 
portion of them at a time, selecting each time those who 
are located at considerable distances apart ; if one who 
receives the circular and letter finds that his neighbor has 
also received them the thing is cheapened with him 
thereby. The whole list of manufacturers should be ex- 
hausted if a sale does not ensue without. 

When an answer is received looking toward negotiation 
a gentle effort at least should be made to get an offer of 
terms, a thing that the inventor can reasonably urge on 
the ground that the manufacturer, being in the kindred 
business, is better qualified to set a price than the inven- 
tor. If terms have to be named, such should be offered 
as have already been decided upon in accordance with 
suggestions hereinbefore contained, and the advisable 
manner of stating them is to say that for reasons thus 
and so the inventor deems such a sum or such a royalty 
not unreasonable. When an offer is made the inventor 
should most carefully consider before rejecting it, even if 
the price named be a disappointing one. If it is thought 
that better terms can be obtained it is well to inform the 
correspondent that while the inventor is greatly obliged 
for the kind offer made, yet it falls so far short of his 
reasonable expectations that he must further consider it. 

A rule which should be imperative in all business 
matters comes into play here : never be rude or perem- 
tory in declining an offer, but always express yourself in 
the kindest and pleasantest terms of which you are 
master. 

It is possible but it is not probable that an invention of 
real merit can run the gauntlet, in this manner, of all the 
manufacturers in the country, whose business is of a kind 



44 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



to naturally interest them in the invention, without find- 
ing a purchaser. 

Newspaper Advertising. This is a matter that 
should be conducted either with a view of reaching a 
class of manufacturers or of reaching the unemployed 
and speculative classes of probable buyers ; for this pur- 
pose the unemployed and the speculative are a single 
class, and a different kind of paper should be used to 
approach them than is used to reach the manufacturers. 

If an inventor has already unsuccessfully approached 
all the manufacturers by correspondence, it is obviously 
not advisable to thereafter spend money in newspaper 
advertising specially adapted to reach the^same class. 

A large portion of almost every class of manufacturers 
may be reached by some specialist periodical, and if an 
attempt is made to reach a class of manufacturers, 
through newspaper advertising, the paper or papers 
should be used which go to that special class. 

While such advertising in specialist journals should 
not, immediately at least, follow a thorough course of at- 
tempted negotiation by correspondence, it can well be 
used independently or as preceding or accompanying 
the correspondence enterprise. Any reliable advertising 
agent will be pleased to furnish on request, free of 
charge, a list of all papers which circulate among special 
classes of manufacturers and dealers, and to give the 
lowest prices for advertising therein. 

Where there are a number of papers which can be 
used it is to be noted that it is better to insert a small ad- 
vertisement in a number of papers than to occupy a 
large space in a few, and an advertisement should 



METHODS OF SALE. 45 



continue long enough to make sure that every reader of 
the paper sees it more than once or twice. 

If the inventor is not skilled in planning advertise- 
ments it will be well for him to get some one who is, to 
prepare the announcement for him. Simple as such a 
matter may seem, it is not a common accomplishment to 
be able to put into a small space, in an attractive and 
striking manner, a notice of anything which shall say just 
enough to induce the reader to take interest in the thing 
advertised. Suppose the invention to be an improve- 
ment in coach varnish ; an advertisement something like 
the following would not be inappropriate : 

NEW COACH VARNISH.„e"„.,t;:^!^„;^rera; 

is for sale. T. W. Copal, Huyshope, Conn. 

This will occupy but a few lines of space and yet will 
say enough to interest varnish and coach manufacturers 
therein. 

The proper periodicals in which to insert this particu- 
lar advertisement are the Oil^ Paint and Drug Reporter^ 
the Harness and Carriage Journal^ and the National Car 
Builder of New York City, the Furniture Trade Journal 
of Chicago, and the Carriage Monthly of Philadelphia. 

When an answer to such, or any advertisement is re- 
ceived the descriptive circular and letter already sug- 
gested, or at least the substance of them, can be used in 
making reply. 

^ The inventor, having once determined to advertise, 
should not fail, if his means permit, to continue his ad- 
vertisement, either in a monthly or weekly journal, for 



46 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



three months, for the experience of veteran advertisers 
in other matters shows that unless a person has a more 
than ordinary interest in the thing advertised he needs 
to see it more than once before he will be moved to 
take any active step with reference to it. 

A step which may sometimes be advisably taken 
before a special line of newspaper advertising is entered 
upon, and may perhaps be well taken as the opening step 
to all advertising, either by circular or periodical, is to 
have the invention illustrated and described in the read- 
ing columns of such a paper as the Scientific American : 
by this means, the inventor will, at a reasonable rate, be- 
come possessed of a good engraving of his device, which 
he can use on his descriptive circular, and he will have 
handsomely presented his improvement to the notice of a 
large, if somewhat miscellaneous, class of people inter- 
ested in invention and mechanical matters generally. 

Such an illustration and description in the reading 
columns is a good and valuable thing to have in the 
specialist periodical as a beginning to the common form 
of advertising. The editors of these papers are willing to 
permit this guasi advertising in their reading columns, 
upon new things, as a matter of news. 

A regular reader of the Scientific Aj/iericajt will notice 
that there appear therein, not infrequently, the advertise- 
ments of parties who profess — and their professions are 
apparently bona fide — a desire to possess themselves of 
some new and good invention, generally in the way of 
manufacturing the goods on a royalty ; these seem to in- 
dicate that this paper is, by many at least, recognized as 
a medium for inventors ; and it seems advisable in re- 
sorting to any newspaper advertising, in order to dispose 



METHODS OF SALE. 47 



of an invention, that this paper should at least be inclu- 
ded in the list used. The San Francisco Scientific and 
Mining Press seems to occupy a somewhat similar though 
more limited field on the Pacific slope. 

In attempting to reach the speculative and unemployed 
classes it is well to use a kind of papers of which the 
New York Herald is the leader and foremost type, the 
Boston Herald falling not far behind : in these papers two 
forms of advertising are suggested as advisable on alter- 
nate or different days, one form which announces a val- 
uable improvement without naming it specifically, and 
another form which gives the nature thereof. Perhaps 
an inventor who intends to advertise in one or more of 
these papers can not do better than to procure copies of 
three or four different issues of the N. Y. Sunday Herald 
and study the best forms of advertisements of this sort 
contained therein ; those that strike him favorably will 
be likely to have the same effect upon others. 

The field for advertising of this sort is illimitable, and, 
unless the inventor is an expert in such matters, it can not 
be advisable to do more in this line than to use a very 
few of the foremost papers of this type, for a limited 
time, supplemented perhaps by the use of one or more 
papers published in the inventor's own locality. 

Where an inventor is seeking to sell local rights, or to 
establish local agents for the development of his in- 
vention, he can with advantage use a class of local papers, 
those prominent in cities. of moderate size, throughout 
the whole country or any section thereof : by informing 
a reliable advertising agent what amount of money he 
proposes to spend, what his object is, and what class of 
persons he desires to reach, an inventor can often get 



48 . I'ROFtT FROM Invention, 



sound and valuable advice and direction as to the papers 
proper to use. 

There is nothing to prevent the use of the specialist 
and the general papers at the same time, or to prevent 
their use concurrently with attempts at negotiation by 
correspondence. 

Let the inventor be cautious and wary about general 
advertising : it is very easy to throw away money in that 
direction. As to the modes of newspaper advertising 
herein referred to, let them be considered simply as sug- 
gestions of different methods, among which oftentimes 
an intelligent choice can be made rather than as a rule 
or routine to be invariably followed. 

At the end of this chapter there will be found a list — 
not exhaustive by any means — of various trade and 
specialist papers, taken from the American Newspaper 
Directory, issued by George P. Rowell & Co., of New 
York city, an advertising agency of the highest standing. 

Travelling Salesmen. At rare intervals one may 
happen upon a man experienced in travelling about the 
country and selling local rights under letters patent. 

Sometimes such an one buys the patent under which 
he operates and sometimes he works for another on com- 
mission : in the latter case he generally pays his own ex- 
penses and has for pay one half the gross amount 
received from sales. 

It must, in truth, be said that some of these travelling 
salesmen have, by fraudulent practices, done much 
toward bringing their occupation into disrepute. 

These practices, have consisted in making grossly false 
representations with regard to such particulars as the first 



METHODS OF SALE. 49 



cost of the patented article, in taking promissory notes 
from purchasers under some conditional verbal agreement 
and then selling the notes instanter, and the like. 

An honest and experienced agent of this kind, willing 
to enter into an engagement, is a lucky " find " for an in- 
ventor. The inventor can not afford to enter into rela- 
tions with one of the dishonest ones, for — aside from the 
undesirability of being accessory to fraudulent practices — 
the agent will be very likely to supplement his dishonest 
acts in making sales with equally dishonest acts in making 
returns to his principal. 

It can not be considered advisable to enter into an 
arrangement of this sort unless the integrity of the sales- 
man is assured or unless he has tangible means which 
make him pecuniarily responsible so that he may be 
made to account for sales he accomplishes : in any case 
his authority to act should be in writing, and, by the 
wording of the instrument, made terminable by recording 
a written revocation thereof in the Patent Offtce ; this as 
a measure of protection both for the patent owner and 
for the purchasers of rights. 



Personal Solicitation. If an inventor cares to make 
the sale of territorial rights under his monopoly his sole 
occupation and can get safely through the period of raw- 
ness, which attends the commencement stage of such un- 
dertakings, without giving up the business in .disgust, he 
will find that method of sale which consists in travelling 
about the country and selling local rights, by local, per- 
sonal effort, the most remunerative in a majority of 
cases. 

7 



50 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



He must however give his whole time to the business, 
must have means sufficient to allow him to travel, and 
must persevere till he learns not to be discouraged at any 
and all disheartening obstacles he may encounter ; in 
short, he must make of himself a successful salesman 
and a salesman of a rare order, a task which is obviously 
so difficult that he should not undertake it until he has 
carefully counted the cost and made up his mind that he 
has the capability of success and the perseverance to 
achieve it. 

In setting out for an enterprise of this sort it is a 
necessity that the inventor should have the handsome 
and perfect model and full sized machine, already 
referred to, and plenty of descriptive circulars. 

The methods of an experienced travelling salesman of 
territorial rights are in substance these : — When he ar- 
rives at a town where he proposes to make a sale he 
plants himself at the hotel or tavern prepared to stay any 
reasonable length of time and carry on a regular cam- 
paign. If he has an improvement of undoubted utility 
and soundness he first casts about to find a local manu- 
facturer whose business is of a kind to commend the in- 
vention to him ; not finding such an one, or, finding one, 
not being able to make a sale to him, he then turns his 
attention to the general public. 

He erects his full sized machine in the office or bar 
room of the inn and explains it to all who ask about it or 
who will Hear him : he hangs a bunch of the descriptive 
circulars near the machine and appends the legend 
"Take One." 

He, unobstrusively as possible, makes the acquaintance 
of everybody in the hotel and of all those who frequent 



METHODS OF SALE. 5 1 



it ; he enters into conversation on all local affairs that are 
talked about and acquires all possible information about 
surrounding people, their mental make up and their 
means. While he thus assiduously applies himself to his 
task his air is not that of a man fearful and anxious lest 
he shall fail of making a trade, but rather that of serene 
composure founded upon a knowledge that the sterling 
qualities of his improvement will be sure to find him a 
customer sooner or later. 

He enlists the landlord in his enterprise, often by 
promise of a small commission on sales, and gets from 
him the names and circumstances of all persons in the 
neighborhood who may, by possibility, become buyers ; 
if the vicinage contains a man who has made himself 
useful to previous venders of rights or one who is other- 
wise peculiarly fitted to render assistance, the salesman 
hunts him up, and, on promise of a commission, enlists 
his services ; often the two together call on persons 
whom the local helper suggests as possible buyers. 

The salesman usually inserts an advertisement in the 
local newspaper, announcing an opening for a new and 
profitable business, and inviting examination : if the in- 
vention stands fire under the scrutiny of the editor his 
official endorsement can commonly be had in the reading 
columns of his journal. 

If the invention is, for instance, an improvement in 
churns, the salesman by circular or by newspaper adver- 
tisement, either or both or otherwise, gives notice all 
about that at a specified time and place he will give a 
public exhibition of the operation and advantages of 
his machine, and will produce butter from cream or new 
milk in a certain specified and very short time. Pursu- 



52 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



ant to this proclamation a crowd gathers at the set time 
and place, usually just before nightfall, in front of the 
inn, and the salesman gives the promised exhibition, 
making his undertaking good with due elaboration, 
showing full knowledge of his subject, explains the 
machine and its advantages. This kind of a performance 
rarely fails to interest a number of people in the improve- 
ment and eventually to give, from one or more of them, 
a customer. 

It is, of course, to be understood that the salesman 
must be prepared to give to all who take interest, with 
entire and. satisfactory definiteness, all those items of fact 
which operate as an inducement to purchasers, the first 
cost, the individual profit, the extent of the market, etc. : 
often a potent factor in making sales is a reasonable rep- 
resentation of the money to be made by the buyer of 
a State or county monopoly, in selHng minor rights. 

As a sample of the success of these travelling sales- 
men the writer is able to mention the instance where, 
from his office window he saw one of them stand upon 
the pavement in front of a city hotel, with a full sized 
working model of a simple improvement in a sash balance 
for windows, and for two days constantly explain and il- 
lustrate the device to a dozen or half dozen persons at a 
time, without apparently making any effectual impression 
upon his hearers ; but before the close of the third day he 
sold a county right, for $2,600, to a man apparently the 
most unlikely in the city to become a purchaser, a butcher 
staid and sober, never before known to speculate, even in 
the most modest way, in his life. 

The secret of making such sales is an open one. It is 
to provide a full sized model which handsomely and per- 



METHODS OF SALE. 53 



fectly illustrates the invention, to constantly call the 
attention of the public to it by all legitimate means, to 
be unwearied in explaining and exhibiting the model and 
in repeating its advantages, and when a man's attention is 
once secured to be able to force home the opening wedge 
by facts and figures which cannot be denied or gainsayed ; 
and, above all, it is to have limitless perseverance in 
doing all this. 

If a man offers houses, lands, personal property, or 
good notes, in lieu of money, they should be unhesita- 
tingly accepted and converted into current coin of the 
realm afterward. 

The salesman should have his letters-patent with him, 
and also certified copies thereof to be delivered to buy- 
ers ; the assignments he proffers should contain a clear 
and binding warranty of title : he should be able to refer 
to some well known public man or official, governor, 
mayor, member of Congress, bank president, or the like, 
who. will by letter or telegraph vouch for the salesman's 
identity and character ; he should also have on deposit 
with the Commissioner of Patents a small sum of money 
to defray the official expense of answering letters and 
telegrams as to the salesman's record title to his patent : 
such facilities will enable the salesman to immediately 
clear up any doubts which may arise in an intending 
buyer's mind as to the salesman's right to make the pro- 
posed sale, and enable him to '^ strike while the iron is 
hot," the ability to do which will at times be decisive of 
a bargain when a little delay might prove fatal. 

It is in the highest degree desirable to be able to give or 
sell the buyer of a local right a full sized working model; 
sometimes a sale can not be made except upon such a 



54 PROFIT FROM INVENTION. 



condition : the purchaser sees how easily the salesman 
has made his money in connection therewith and inward- 
ly intends to repeat the performance on a lesser scale. 

When the patented improvement is some device proper 
to be furnished by a manufacturer and by the buyer of 
the right applied to use, it is strongly advisable for the 
salesman to have a written contract with a manufacturer 
wherein the latter agrees to furnish the former and his 
assigns with the article at a certain price, a copy of which 
agreement can be delivered to the buyer of the local right. 

The salesman should, in all possible ways, make the 
progress of the buyer to a profit clear and easy. 

If the patent has a broad and strong claim, or if the 
patented article does not infringe any prior existing 
patent, it is well to have the written opinion of a reputa- 
ble patent lawyer or mechanical expert to attest the 
fact ; it is not generally desirable to make any special 
parade thereof, but cases are apt to arise where the pres- 
ence of such a paper is desirable. 

A thing sometimes done by travelling salesmen of 
patents is to find some resident not overburdened with 
scruples and arrange with him that he shall hold himself 
out as ready to buy a half interest in the local right, and 
they two, the salesman and the decoy, go in search of 
some other person who will really buy the other half* 
The price of the territory is put at double that which the 
seller means to realize, and when the third party is found 
to actually buy the other half of the right, the territory 
is assigned to the decoy and real purchaser jointly, but 
no money is really paid except by the third party, and 
out of that the seller pays a commission to the decoy. 
The fact that a neighbor is ready to purchase a half in- 



kteTUODS Ot- SALE. 



55 



terest in the right is often a strong inducement to the 
third party to buy the other half. This species of per- 
formance is mentioned only to warn against it. It is a 
clear swindle in the forum of morals and neither a judge 
or jury would be apt to see much in it other or less than 
a conspiracy to defraud. 




A List (not exhaustive) of Trade 
Journals, taken from the Amer- 
ican Nev^spaper Directory, 
issued by Geo. P. Row^ell 
& Co., of New York 
City, Advertising 
Agents. 



CALIFORNIA. 
San Fr., Mining and Scientific Press. 
San Fr., Engineer of the Pacific. 

ILLINOIS. 

Chic, Northwestern Lumberman. 

Chic, Railway Age. 

Chic, Railway Review. 

Chic, Western Shoe & Leath. Review 

Chic, Bookseller and Stationer. 

Chic, Furniture Trade Journal. 

Chic, Western Brewer. 

Chic, Western Confect'r and Baker. 

Chic, Western Paper Trade. 

E. St. Louis, St. Louis Railway World 

Chic, American Miller. 

Chic, Western Manufacturer. 

Chic, Watchmaker & Metalworker. 



INDIANA. 

Indianapolis, Mechanical Journal. 
Indianapolis, Mill Stone. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

Boston,Am. Architect & Build'gNews 
Boston, American Cabinet Maker. 
Boston, Inv. and Mfrs.' Gazette. 
Holyoke, Manufacturer. 

MICHIGAN. 
Bay City, Lumberman's Gazette. 
Houghton, Portage Lake Min. Gazette 
Marquette, Mining Journal. 
Hancock, Northwestern Min. Journal. 

MINNESOTA. 
Minneapolis, Miss. Valley Lumberman 



A LIST OF TRADE JOURNALS. 



57 



MISSOURI. 
St. Louis, Miller. 
St. Louis, Brewer. 

NEW JERSEY. 
Newark, Exponent. 
Smithville, New Jersey Mechanic. 

NEW YORK. 
American Railroad Journal. 
American Stationer. 
Goal Trade Journal. 
Crockery and Glass Journal. 
Iron Age. 
Mining Record. 
Music Trade Review. 
Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter. 
Paper Trade Journal. 
Tobacco Leaf. 
U. S. Tobacco Journal. 
Wine and Fruit Reporter. 
American Bookseller. 
Geyer's Stationers. 
American Brewers' Gazette. 
Am. Wine and Grape Grower. 
Carpet Trade. 
Carpet Trade Review. 
Clothier and Hatter. 
Druggists' Circular. 
Germ.& Am. Brewers' Journal. 
Harness and Carriage Journal. 
Hat,Cap & Fur Trade Review. 
Jour. for the Stationery Trade. 
Men's Furnish'g Trade Rev'w 
Paper Trade Reporter. 
Railway Record. 
Water, Gas and Steam. 
I American Machinist. 
Eng. and Mining Journal. 
, Engineering News. 
Metal Worker. 
, Millers' Journal. 
, Railroad Gazette. 
, Scientific American. 
, Scientific Man. 
, Shoe and Leather Reporter. 
American Gas Light Journal. 
Am. Hairdresser & Perfumer. 
Journal of the Telegraph. 



N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


Y'. 


Y.,( 


N. 


Y.,( 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


N. 


Y., 


Y. 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


Y. 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 


N 


Y., 



N. Y., Operator. 

N. Y., Plumber & Sanitarj' Engtineer. 

N. Y., Scientific News. 

N. Y., American Builder. 

N. Y. Am. Journal of Microscopy. 

N. Y., Anthony's Photo. Bulletin. 

N. Y., Brick and Pottery Journal. 

N. Y., Carpentry and Building. 

N. Y., Hub. 

N. Y., Jewelers' Circular. 

N. Y., Manufacturer and Builder. 

N. Y., National Car Builder. 

N. Y., Painters' Magazine. 

N. Y., Sewing Machine Journal. 

N. Y., Sewing Machine News. 

OHIO. 

Cin., Western Tobacco Journal. 
Cin., Manufactur'g & Trade Review. 
Cin., American Inventor. 
Cin., Miller and Millwright. 
Springfield, Leffel's Mech. News. 
Wilmington, Sewing Mach. Gazette. 
Zanesville, Blandj'-'s Journal. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 
Phil., Bulletin of the American Iron 

and Steel Association. 
Phil., Railway World. 
Phil., Carpet Journal. 
Phil., Confectioners' Journal. 
Pittsburg, Am. Mfr. and Iron World. 
Pittsburg, American Pottery and 

Glassware Reporter. 
Pittsburg, Woolen Manufacturer. 
Phil., Barbers' Journal. 
Phil., Carriage Monthly. 
Phil., Photographer. 

VIRGINIA. 

Richmond, Commercial and Tobacco 

Leaf. 
Richmond, Virginia Tobacco Journal. 

WISCONSIN. 

Edgerton, Wis. Tobacco Reporter. 
Lacrosse, Northwestern Miller. 
Milwaukee, U. S. Miller. 



INDEX 



Page 
Advertising, Newspaper ........ 44 

Brokers, Patent . . . . . . . . 33 

Buyers, Probable . . . . . . . -35 

Capital Required ......... 25 

Choice Among Inventions, . . . . . . .12 

Companies, Stock . . . . . . . . . 37 

Correspondence, Negotiation by ...... 40 

Cost, First 20 

Effort, Personal Local 36 

Examination, Preliminary ....... 10 

First Cost, 20 

How to Invent ......... 3 

Individual Profit, The . . . . . . . .20 

Invent, How to ........ . 3 

Invention, Preparation for Sale of . . . . . .18 

Inventions, Choice Among ....... 12 

Inventions, Making and Protecting ...... 3 

Inventions, The Success of ....... 13 

List of Trade Journals ........ 56 

.Local Effort, Personal 36 

Making and Protecting Inventions . . . . . .3 

Market, The. 23 

Methods of Sale -33 



6o 



INDEX. 



Models 

Negotiation by Correspondence. 

Newspaper Advertising . 

Patent Brokers .... 

Personal Local Effort . 

Personal Solicitation . 

Practice, Reduction to . 

Preliminary Examination . 

Preparation for Sale of Invention . 

Price of Territorial Rights 

Price to be Asked .... 

Probable Buyers 

Profit, The Individual . 

Protecting Inventions, Making and 

Reduction to Practice 

Right, Shop .... 

Rights, Price of Territorial . 

Royalties 

Sale, Methods of . 

Salesmen, Traveling . 

Sale of Invention, Preparation for 

Shop Right .... 

Solicitation, Personal 

Stock Companies 

Success of Inventions, The . 

Territorial Rights, Price of 

Trade Journals, Eist of. 

Traveling Salesmen . 



Page 
i8 
40 
44 
33 
36 

49 
10 
10 

18 
28 
26 

35 
20 

3 
10 

31 

28 
29 

33 
48 
18 
31 
49 
37 
13 
28 
56 
48 



THE END. 



